Advent – which contemplates the great miracle of God becoming a human being – is a challenge to our intellect: “how can these things be?” But it is also a challenge to our imagination, the lens through which we see the world, what the Bible calls “the eyes of your heart.” Because advent means an imagination shaped by hope.
[Note: This was one of the favorite sermons I preached in 2018. I had preached it twice before but on this occasion I found myself going “off script,” so to speak, and felt the Spirit moving powerfully.]